Jay-Z never promised ‘bitch’ ban

Team Jay-Z have denied recent reports that the MC will ban the word “bitch” from his future recordings after becoming a father to baby girl Blue Ivy Carter.

The initial rumours that Mr Z planned to undertake some self-censorship in a bid to show respect to the ladies stemmed from a poem credited to the rapper that appeared online and read: “Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich/I didn’t think hard about using the word ‘bitch’/I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it/Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it”.

Not up to his usual lyrical standards perhaps, but pretty progressive all the same. Except the poem didn’t appear on any official Jay-Z outlets online, and yesterday it was revealed that’s because the words didn’t come from the hip hop mogul at all. The verse has been traced back to one Renee Gardner, whose article containing the poem was published in this post – on black news and culture site Rolling Out.

It’s not clear whether Gardner meant for people to construe his poem as having been written by Jay-Z, or whether she wrote it as some sort of hypothetical morality piece; perhaps both apply. But one thing is certain; Jay-Z isn’t banning ‘bitch’ from his future lyrics, not even for his own daughter.

E! News reported yesterday that “a source close to the rapper’s camp” had confirmed that Jay-Z was not the author of the poem. The Roots’ Questlove then clarified things further in a tweet, saying: “This just in: [Jay-Z] to me: ‘B*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!!!!!!!'” (The censorship there is Questlove’s own, by the way).